Europe Slow in Trying to Save JCPOA: Iran

Date: 20 August 2018 - 21:37

News ID: ۵۶۵۶۱

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iran said Monday that Europe should accelerate its efforts to salvage a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers that U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned in May, as French oil group Total formally pulled out a major gas project.
Efforts by the remaining signatories – EU members Britain, France and Germany plus China and Russia – to avoid its collapse are struggling as Washington has said any firms dealing with Teheran will be barred from doing business in the United States.
"Europeans and other signatories of the deal have been trying to save the deal ... but the process has been slow. It should be accelerated," Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said. "Iran relies mainly on its own capabilities to overcome America's new sanctions," he told a news conference  here.
European states have been scrambling to ensure Iran gets enough economic benefits to persuade it to stay in the deal, which Trump said was "deeply flawed."
Washington imposed new sanctions on Iran in August, targeting its trade in gold and other precious metals, purchases of U.S. dollars and its car industry.
The European powers, China and Russia say they will do more to encourage their businesses to remain engaged with Iran. But the threat of U.S. sanctions has prompted many major companies to pull out of Iran.
Carmakers PSA, Renault and Daimler are also among those to suspend or drop plans to invest in Iran along with Deutsche Bahn and Deutsche Telekom
Working to maintain financial channels with Tehran and facilitate Iran's oil exports, the European Union has taken steps to counter the renewed U.S. sanctions, including forbidding EU citizens from complying with them or related court rulings.
The United States will impose tougher sanctions on Iran in November which will target Iran's oil sale and banking sector.
Qasemi said the U.S. has launched a massive campaign against it, sending teams to different countries around the world to disrupt Tehran's trade ties, but the effort will fail.
"America is not in a position to do whatever it wants. It's not time to dictate and write from dictation," he said.
The Trump administration has reportedly formed a new "elite team of foreign affairs specialists” led by the State Department to coordinate and promote its pressure policies against Iran across the government and with other nations.
Brian Hook, the department’s current director of policy planning, will lead the team as the administration’s special representative to the Iran Action Group, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Thursday.
"The United States is trying, in a massive psychological warfare and all-out attempt, to create restrictions on Iran's economic cooperation by sending delegations and forming such groups and contacts with countries," Qasemi said.
"These actions will not come to fruition and can fail. Although there will be sanctions, we can get through this stage," he added.
The spokesman played down the significance of the action group, saying it was nothing new and Iran did not take it very seriously.
"A major part of it is in accordance with psychological warfare and pressure on countries to not cooperate with Iran. We are observing this group and its actions, and to what extent it is pursuing its activities," Qasemi said.
"This measure, like previous ones, will go nowhere and will be neutralized with the resistance of the Iranian nation and the strategies which exist," he added without elaboration.
While Iran has complaints about the practical measures being taken by the Europeans to ensure trade with the Islamic Republic, it is still optimistic, Qasemi said. "We have not lost our hope," he added.
Nevertheless, "we rely initially on Iran's national capabilities and economic capacities and then we have an eye on external and outside cooperation" to overcome new U.S. sanctions, the spokesman said.
Washington has said the pressures are aimed at forcing Tehran to bring a sweeping change to its nuclear program and foreign policy, including its military engagement in Syria.
Advisory Presence in Syria to Continue
An unnamed U.S. official has been quoted as saying that the U.S. and Russia agreed in principle that the Iranians should exit Syria but Russia saw that as a tough task.
Qasemi played down talks between National Security Advisor John Bolton and his Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev later this week in Geneva, which are reportedly to touch on Iran’s role in Syria.
He said there is a lot of contradictory news about the issue which should not given much attention, adding there is also a "serious bid to undermine relations between Iran and Russia which have had good cooperation on many fronts, including in Syria."
Having said that, "I reiterate that we have a military advisory presence in Syria at the invitation of its government and as long as the Syrian government demands, we will be present there - both now and during the reconstruction phase," Qasemi said.
"We will not allow others to interfere in our relations with neighboring and periphery countries through a propaganda campaign, and this is what the occupation regime and some others are pursuing," the spokesman added.
Iran is planning to host a tripartite summit on Syria in early September with the presidents of Russia and Turkey.
"It will be an important summit," Qasemi said, adding he would announce the exact date of the summit soon.